A Turnover Gap for Minority Teachers

Black and Latino teachers are leaving the profession “in droves,” says Betty Achinstein, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the co-author of Change(d) Agents: New Teachers of Color in Urban Schools.

“Teachers of color” make up only 17 percent of the teaching force, despite the rising percentage of minority students, reports Miller-McCune. Schools are hiring more minority teachers, but also losing more, says Richard Ingersoll, a Penn professor of education.

According to the Penn study, more than half of all public school minority teachers are working in high-poverty, high-minority urban schools, compared to only one-fifth of white teachers, though white teachers still make up the majority of teachers in those schools.

The turnover rate for minority teachers was 24 percent higher than for whites in 2008-09, the Penn study found. Difficult working conditions drive teachers out. “The reality is, the minority teachers are not more likely than white teachers to stay in those tough places,” Ingersoll said.